the delmar loop | Kinloch native and megastar Jenifer Lewis has received a second metal sidewalk star acknowledging her contributions to the world of entertainment, and it may be even more special than the one that already honors her out in L.A. Well, OK, maybe not really, but her star on the Delmar Loop on the St. Louis Walk of Fame holds a special place in her heart. And her heart is bigger than any metal star in a sidewalk, say those in the know, considering she battled back from a near-fatal fall off a hotel balcony while on safari in 2022 and returned to performing. Her star is in front of 6166 Delmar on the Loop, across from the Moonrise Hotel. Dubbed both as a national treasure and a force to be reckoned with, the award-winning actress, activist and author has appeared in more than 400 episodic TV shows, 68 movies, 30 animations and four Broadway shows. Star of the eight-season ABC-TV series Black·ish, she most recently appeared as Patricia in the Showtime series I Love That for You. She has performed in more than 200 concerts worldwide, including a sell-out at Lincoln Center in NYC, and was honored with a standing ovation at Carnegie Hall. Her accomplishments as an entertainer and community activist have been recognized with an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, Webster University, and the Career Achievement Award from the American Black Film Festival. In her 2022 book Walking in My Joy: In These Streets, she recounts true stories of her experiences and travels, such as the successful takedown of a con man who’d tried to rope her into a romance scheme. Humorous anecdotes include fainting at the Obamas’ holiday party and being chased by a Cape buffalo.
st. louis
In the summer of 1974, Robert Fishbone and Sarah Linquist arrived in the Lou after graduating from college to take a media job that never materialized. That summer 50 years ago was the first time they pooled their creative resources and applied colorful paints to the side of a building—“Wall the Butterfly,” a four-panel mural at 8th and Pine streets in downtown. From left to right, ‘Wally’ started out as a chrysalis and emerged as a beautiful, full-fledged butterfly. The building and the mural are long gone, as are most of the hundreds of murals the couple painted together over the next few decades, the most famous of which, perhaps, was “Lindy Squared” (1978), a pixelated image of aviator Charles Lindbergh in squares of black, white and shades of grey. A few years after Linquist’s untimely death in 2010, their daughter Liza joined her dad in On the Wall Productions, with one of their latest, “A Bee Named Bubbles,” taking up one full side of a building adjacent to DeMun Park in Clayton. As also detailed previously in these pages, Fishbone is supervising the renovation of the World’s Fair-themed mural on the west side of the once and future Sheraton Hotel in Midtown. Exterior repair will continue this fall as the interior renovation proceeds, with painting anticipated to begin in the spring on scaffolds as high as 200 feet—wind, rain and other vagaries of weather permitting. Although neither Fishbone expects to apply much of the unique, rugged paint needed for the project, Robert says some of the painters who worked on it 40 years ago may return. Fishbone, now a man of a certain age, is not the retiring sort. Creating meditative labyrinths is a more recent passion, and among the public and private pathways under consideration is a labyrinth inside Bellefontaine Cemetery in north St. Louis, the city’s ‘other sculpture garden.’ “My meditation teacher described it as the move from ‘OOO!’ to ‘Ahhhh,’” says Fishbone. Visit stlouislabyrinths.com and onthewallmurals.com.
the metro
Aren’t you just dying to know why you should always carry a crayon in your wallet when traveling? (Note that the photo seems to show a single $50 bill, which we also highly recommend carrying more of.) As is the case with many of these ‘life hacks’ websites that seem to just pop up everywhere, the clickbait topic that got your attention in the first place doesn’t appear until many clicks later, if at all. Live and learn: We googled crayons in wallets and found a very long article about everything from keeping the kids occupied while on vacation to keeping your wallet kind of straight, so your credit cards don’t warp. Classic solution looking for a problem. Like why should you keep a plastic bread clip with you at all times? Well—hey, musicians! Guitarists, in particular: You wouldn’t want to be caught at a gig without a pick, now, would you? At home, of course, that hard plastic clip can even double as a screwdriver—if you don’t need that flathead screw to be more than hand tight. Some rationales for these life hacks require, for many of us, a willing suspension of disbelief. Because another reason you should always have a crayon on you is for personal security. Say what? Suppose some thug has done, or is about to do, something heinous to you. Why, you can just leave a note at the scene of the crime with the crayon, of course! That’s assuming your particular thug hasn’t thought to confiscate your wallet or cellphone. Of course, that’s one of the biggest IFs imaginable. We guess this is the bottom line here: Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.
notable neighbors
fenton
That elderly little doggo in the arms of Tracy Rumpf of Fenton is named Spike, and he’s one of the more recent residents of Rumpf’s rescue for senior dogs, Second Chance Ranch. Spike’s owner passed away, which is the sad and desperate scenario faced by so many of the four-legged clients at the rescue ranch, a converted Valley Park farmhouse. With plenty of yard, the rescue keeps the big old dogs downstairs and the little old dogs upstairs in the ‘penthouse.’ Some of the dogs are available for adoption, while others will live out their days at the ranch with meds, plenty of food, water and lots of love from the many volunteers who work in shifts to take care of them, including overnight. It’s the metro’s first ‘retirement home’ for old dogs, many of whom are lucky to have lived so long. Some of them were just dumped in a park, or worse, others were scheduled to be put down to make more room at the shelters for puppies. This is the ongoing challenge: People don’t realize how critical spaying and neutering is to controlling canine and feline populations. No matter how many times they’re reminded, some remain forever ignorant, even so clueless as to say, “I don’t want to remove my dog’s manhood!” Rumpf exclaims, pointing out that dogs who are ‘fixed’ live longer, healthier lives. But all too many are on death row as soon as they’re born. Nationwide, 10,000 dogs are put down every day: “Moms and their puppies are being euthanized,” says Rumpf, shaking her head. That comes to more than 3.6 million a year. And don’t get her started on Missouri’s puppy-mill problem. In the Show-Me State, cats and dogs are classified as livestock. And it’s beyond her why someone would pay for an inbred animal when so many are available for much less, sometimes free. “There’s nothing wrong with a rescue dog; they aren’t broken,” says Rumpf, executive director of the ranch—not to mention fundraiser, volunteer and poop picker-upper. Rumpf’s database of volunteers stands at more than 300, but she can count on about 70 of them. “You can’t even get people to work for $15 or $20 an hour,” she acknowledges. “You really have to touch somebody’s ‘can-do’ nerve.” And doers like Rumpf and her ilk have a heightened sense of responsibility toward others that you don’t find just anywhere. The rescue concept came to her in the middle of the night during the pandemic when she realized her nonprofit would be a one-step-forward, two-steps-back proposition in the best of times. “We try to reach seniors who have lost a dog or a spouse. And we know it’s a band-aid.” Her midnight vision included a brand-new word: “Dognity is a movement,” she says with pride—in the future it should include T-shirts, coffee cups, other merch and more. And she’s grateful for the publicity that Second Chance Ranch already has garnered. For one thing, the operation is funded entirely by donations. But she’s confident the ‘dognity’ idea can grow, flourish and spread nationwide: “I’m looking forward to sitting with Hoda and Savannah” one day on NBC’s Today show. Want to get involved? Visit secondchanceranchstl.org.
